Nonprofit Meeting Facilitation
There’s a reason it’s called “facilitation.” To facilitate means to make easier or less difficult. Even more importantly, it means to help move forward an action or process.
Hiring a professional meeting facilitator will make your life easier, but it will also move your organization forward with a process that has proven successful in other nonprofit settings.
However, not all facilitators are created equal. Meeting facilitation involves much more than a zippy PowerPoint presentation and a flip chart.
What can you expect from me as your professional meeting facilitator?
Knowledge
As someone who has spent 30 years working with nonprofit organizations, I know that each group has its unique mission, goals, structure and issues. As your meeting facilitator, I will do my homework. I will meet with your leaders and other key stakeholders to understand what you hope to accomplish and what you hope to avoid. I will help you develop the agenda, not drive the agenda. I won’t force your group into some set formula for planning and meeting.
Organization
In addition to working with you on the agenda, I will help you determine what resources and materials are necessary to accomplish your tasks and suggest ways to organize and distribute them to maximize their usefulness. With years of experience working with groups, I am able to anticipate issues and pitfalls and provide for contingencies that might arise. I leave nothing to chance. One of the critical services I provide is follow up with ways to track progress and organize ideas generated during the meeting. A pile of chart paper and stacks of post-it notes are of little value unless they are synthesized and transformed into usable resources.
Process
Just as no two organizations are exactly alike, no two sets of meeting participants are alike either. I have learned to read audiences and have experience with a wide variety of process and decision making tools. Carefully monitoring group dynamics and adjusting tactics as the meeting unfolds can help avoid unnecessary conflicts and bypass roadblocks.
Objectivity
You may have a someone in your organization who possesses that blend of knowledge, organization and process skills, but you will sacrifice one of the key advantages of a professional meeting facilitator – objectivity. I will bring enthusiasm and energy to your process, but I will not bring the emotional investment that can cloud issues and short circuit progress. I will listen and capture diverse opinions in concise language. I will draw out reluctant participants and involve them in meaningful ways in the process. I will manage the use of sensitive information. And I will move the meeting along when the discussion begins to wander off topic or time constraints are challenged.
For over thirty years I have worked in the nonprofit sector in many capacities including manager, policy advocate, lawyer and consultant across twenty states and several state agencies.
Contact Spegman Consulting for nonprofit meeting facilitation services.